Just weeks ago, Cheryl Dukesherer had resigned herself to closing her beloved Manhattan Beach shop after more than 20 years in business.

Decent holiday sales at A Summer Place salved poor autumn returns, but by spring, business had slowed so much that Dukesherer knew she couldn’t go on any longer.

“We’ve really tried in the last year, but business has just tanked,” she said.

So, closing signs went up, merchandise prices went down and Dukesherer braced herself for heartbreak. But then a funny thing happened: The customers came back, the landlord reduced her rent and city leaders answered business leaders’ pleas for cheaper parking in town.

Dukesherer has decided to keep A Summer Place open for at least another six months – largely thanks to the sudden outpouring of community support reinforced by city leaders who have made preserving recession-rocked small businesses a priority.

“I look to our downtown and North End business district to provide quality of life to the residents that neighbor them, as well as all of Manhattan Beach and visitors,” Mayor Portia Cohen said.

“I think it’s rare to have a vibrant downtown in cities these days because of the malling of America. So many traditional downtown city shopping districts have passed away because they can’t compete with the low prices that larger volume-generating stores are able to do.”

The City Council earlier this month formally rolled back parking meter rates in town by 40 percent, from $1.25 to 75 cents an hour for the next six months – a move Cohen began calling for in April.

The city also will investigate installing change machines and offering discounted rates on cash keys, electronic devices that function like debit cards for parking meters, all with the aim of making parking easier on shoppers.

Though drawing more customers to the area would be a bonus, Cohen viewed the decision to drop parking meter rates as more of a statement of support for local businesses than an attempt to lure more business.

“I’m willing to devote resources to maintain and nurture this unique pedestrian environment that we have in Manhattan Beach,” she said. “I think that lowering the parking meters served as a message from the City Council that we value our downtown and we’re trying to nurture it, given the financial downturn and the impact it’s had on our small businesses.”

Still, the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business and Professional Association has already begun touting the cheaper parking rates as part of its “Buy Manhattan: What you spend here, stays here” campaign, and only time will tell if lower meter rates will increase business revenue.

“Our main thing is wanting to remind people how important it is to keep your dollar local,” said Mary Ann Varni, the association’s executive director. “There’s a payback for everybody. We really want people to understand what that means. Intellectually, people kind of see that, but I don’t think people really know what that means.”

But so far, community support has been enough to bolster sales at A Summer Place, Dukesherer said.

“Right now, everything is on sale, but people said, ‘Oh my gosh, I will not pay the sale price. Just charge me regularly,”‘ she said.

Dukesherer and her husband opened the store more than 20 years ago across the street from City Hall, selling furniture, knick-knacks and antiques.

It’s been a family affair, as husband Dan, who has a day job in the shipping business, handles deliveries, and both of the couple’s children have worked in the store.

Longtime Westchester residents, the Dukesherers chose Manhattan Beach for their shop’s location because of its quaint, small-town feel.

“When we first opened, they told us, the only thing they sell in this town are T-shirts. You’re never going to make it,”‘ Dan recalled.

The couple managed to prove those naysayers wrong – at least until the economy collapsed. The Dukesherers kept the business afloat with savings, but both knew it couldn’t go on much longer.

“I’m here because I love it,” Cheryl Dukesherer said. “I’ve poured my heart and soul into this business. I’ve given it everything I’ve got, but I’m not going to do it if I’m losing money.”

Despite its tony reputation, Manhattan Beach is clearly not immune from the recession, counting a host of casualties in the ongoing battle between small business and economics – a continual struggle for many even in good times.

In the past year, at least a dozen long-standing downtown businesses have closed or turned over into other businesses, Varni said.

Helen Duncan, president of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, counted at least seven small businesses that have closed in recent months.

Monique Nguyen managed to reopen her clothing boutique about eight months after it was destroyed in a November 2006 fire, but now she’s closing her doors.

Earlier this month, Alie Volk closed her self-named clothing boutique in the city’s northern end, where she was a leader in the area’s business improvement district.

“We are being hit,” Duncan said. “It happens so that we’re hit later, and we recover sooner, but we’re hit like everybody else.”

Indeed, the city expects sales tax figures for the 2008-09 fiscal year to total about $7.9 million – $472,000 short of what was originally expected.

And the city’s proposed spending plan for next year anticipates further decreases.

“Business has been down,” Varni said. “It comes and goes in waves, but the downtown is definitely not immune. … Even with the amount of disposable income that’s perceived in town, people’s behavior has changed since the recession.”

For now, A Summer Place is still in place for six months, the length of Dukesherer’s new lease on a smaller portion of her current Highland Avenue location, she said.

The store’s reprieve appears partially the product of close-knit Manhattan Beach doing what it does best – rallying around its own during times of crisis.

When a Manhattan Beach man was seriously injured in a car crash that killed an Angels pitcher as well as another resident, the community organized several fundraisers to help cover hospital bills.

Parents and residents last month succeeded in persuading city leaders to provide a $1.3 million contribution to the struggling school district, even as city coffers had their own shortcomings.

The community has supported two cancer-stricken police officers, as well as Nguyen and others who lost their businesses in the Manhattan Avenue fire nearly three years ago.

“This town rallies for individuals and groups in need,” Cohen said. “There’s a huge philanthropic thrust, which is fabulous.”

And residents will have to do the same for small businesses if they want to preserve the luxury of shopping locally, Dukesherer said.

“If they want this little mom-and-pop business to keep going, unless they want to turn this into a Costco, TJ Maxx or Pottery Barn kind of world, they’ve got to keep coming,” she said. “People have to realize what downtown would be like if it turned into just real estate offices or lawyers’ offices and no shopping anymore.”